The poor, meme-ridden "comedy" website Uncyclopedia is the stuff of Internet legend and infamy. The site, which is thought to have originated in 1860 as an American imperialist tool for global domination, is now a multi-national effort and is viewed as the best of its kind by some.[1] Uncyclopedia currently specializes in tedious mockery of perceived competitors and petty in-fighting, with much of the content seen as mass-produced junk. Yet, there remains a peculiar fondness for some of the articles by fanatics. The site has, however, been perceived as a waste of server space by its host, the evilWikia Empire.

This is a view that has sparked a substantial shift from the site's satirical aspirations, causing it to instead redirect its resources into pathetic racial slurs and declarations of Nazis, preferably with a little Chuck Norris for good measure. This is compounded by the need for articles that appease a "softer consensus."

Contents

History

When Jimmy Wales met the Uncyclopedians in 2005 his response to them was a friendly aloof manner whereby he hoped to extricate himself from their company without hurting their feelings. He commented later on that the Uncyclopedia delegation were a "Bunch of weirdos".

The site was founded by billionaire entrepreneur and media tycoon Oscar Wilde sometime in the late nineteenth century. The early Uncyclopedia was not the impressive effort it is today. It all began when Wilde would often write puerile childish jokes on scraps of paper to his male friends to encourage more "intimate relations." The internet was, conveniently, invented in 1990s and allowed Wilde to pursue the same method through technology and thus he was able to extend his efforts globally.

Recent History

Bond villain stock type Jimbo Wales bought the site from Oscar Wilde in 2005. This was done off the back of economic difficulties and bad press over Wilde's 'libertine lifestyle'. The sale was initially pushed forward by Jimmy Wales, though he later commented that he personally disliked the fact he owned such a "low echelon" of the internet.[3]

In late 2006 Wales and his Wikia firm relinquished to a 20% stake in the site and allowed Oscar Wilde to be reinstated as CEO in the latter quarter of 2006. Wilde was anxious for a new investor, as he found the site a "hassle," and Uncyclopedia was sold by Wilde to News Corp. for all the money in his wallet, change from a nearby vending machine, and some pocket lint, totalling $12.50. Oscar Wilde was kept as acting CEO for publicity purposes despite managerial decisions being shifted to Wikia and News Corp. stooges.

Oscar Wilde had often commented that Uncyclopedia was never "really there" but that it "just pretended" as it was on computer screens. Experts agree that this ignorance of information technology and Web 2.0 forced Wilde to sell to News Corporation. The conglomerate had no problem with the lack of quality or worthwhile content and this has been particularly apparent in the articles now featured. Since then there has been an ever greater emphasis on the "sizzle" rather than the "sausage" of which Wilde was always so fond of.

Purpose

The first ideas for Uncyclopedia were laid down by Chronarion in 2001. It was a time marked by excessive masturbation and intense depression for the young Chronarion. Like all geniuses his reward has been having the credit for achievements stolen by a tedious meme, vis-à-vis Oscar Wilde.

Initially the site was a parody of renowned to comedyencyclopedia, Wikipedia. However, due to economic and mental constraints the site now relies and insists on trusty in-jokes and moronic junk. This was instituted by Wikia who have sought to compete with rival comedy internet sites such as shock humour website Encyclopedia Dramatica and the advertising richyank dumpster, The Onion. Of course no site is really comparable to Uncyclopedia, it occupies a very unique space on the outer rim of the internet.

For the founders of the site, the aim was to provide Oscar Wilde nubile and healthy young men with nothing better to do than make up quotes and writearticles based on the courses they were studying whilst at University.[4] This has still proved to be the case though the site has pursued younger contributors to spark more interest and competition. The result has been an annoying amount of "intellgentsia" who readily have an English textbook from school to correct contributors.

The sites initial aims in 2005 included, writing articles with an intelligent, satirical and funny intent. As time went on and numbers increased, a greater need for recognition and competition amongst the users was required. These included VFH which allowed articles to be showcased to the rest of the community on the front page. Due to the high amount of drama and bitching on discussion pages, a community forum was invented to allow whining and drama to proceed more smoothly.

During January2008 a decree by that Cabal proposes further activities on the site are now to include: voting and adding to VFD (always in expectation of approval), uploading terrible and/or perverted images, creating useless categories and pointlessly categorizing images. There is also to be egregious level of more useless and unfunny templates and quotes that are to be spammed onto articles.[5]

Oscar Wilde instituted a hierarchical administration in the early days of Uncyclopedia to run the site without his supervision. This evil sect would allow for bickering about the site's direction to take place in a clean and less soiled environment than the rest of the site. Entry to the so called "Cabal" for users usually depends on how vocal the current active members are and whether the more moderate voices can stand the drama of yet more "queens" coming to the fore. The Cabal system is widely criticized even by members themselves; an anonymous source has commented, "Once you’re wedged into the Cabal the only real way out is further up it."[6]

The gradual dissolution of on-site memes and nihilistic sentiment towards differing notions of humour was apparently due the Uncyclopedians in yet another stunt to boost the profile of the site. The toothless simpletons from Oscar Wilde's home sty of Dublin and elsewhere around the world strongly deny this. Since then, Uncyclopedia has become more secular.[7]

It has been the case that the site will continue to function on more "experimental" articles involving MS Paint, sex and/or racism jokes. Zombie Jesus famously commented in 2007 about Uncyclopedians, "How the these 'special people' find the on button on their computers let alone edit the site baffles me."

Other recent additions for users to partake in is "power hunger." For the comedy wiki this remains one of the slightly more amusing things for a spectator of the site. It can often hilarious to hear the IRC discussions, or the forums where those skilled in debatekeenly hope to persuade the site that one day they should "seize control" of the impoverished site and restore order.[8]